Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

IMPACT VERSUS CONTROL

Impact is a key word for all entrepreneurs. In a networked system, you want to have impact; in a hierarchy, such as government, you want to have control. Sure, many government people talk about their desire to have a positive impact, but they do this through having control. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are really only interested in impact and, if something doesn’t matter, or doesn’t work, they move on to the next thing.

It’s impossible to control a startup community. This is the final, and possibly most important, reason government shouldn’t play a leadership role. The natural tendency of government is always to control, that is, to set up hierarchy and bureaucracy that controls and sustains a particular structure. A startup community is a rapidly evolving, ever-changing thing. It doesn’t need a long-term structure; that will emerge from the continually evolving activities of the entrepreneurial leaders. It doesn’t need a hierarchy because it runs on a network model. Most importantly, it doesn’t need any bureaucracy because this just slows down progress and the necessary and continual change that has to happen over a long period of time.